Advertisement :,. -. -. -;, ::: . ....;:' ".;. -' ":': :' :.:. :.: .: :: .: .:: .:::.;: ;': .;. - . : .:.... -;.: :.:: ..: :, ".;; : .;;;;':. ;;;::: .:; . .;; . . :.... . :.: . :.:< .::: .: ,;. :: '.; , . :::: : : : :; ;": : ; ::: ; :;;::: : ::: : :';: ,":; (, ;. ; .;:. :: :'- .,:: :{,':.: .:: :. : :{:. . : :. ;:" : :' : :':: :; . -:;: ; : .;:': : ;: : . :::; . ':- : ':' ': ; :' ;': . :{',-' -. . : . ;:: .:<, .:: : :.: : NT E 12.3 ,0 W E R 4 ,5 y6 y' ,8 0 9 pO A' S 0+ F - B>It - It ' H J K · l@ -N ZS X ) C V 8 , , , N M NE WIRELESS NET ACCESS WoUld it make you jealous to know that while you're tied to the computer in your office, your co-worker may be sitting under a shady tree or some other equally refreshing spot, working away on a lap- top or Palm handheld connected to the office network? Weill don't be envious, a perk such as this can also be yours. The ability to work from virtually any- where is made possible by a increasingly popular wireless technology known as Wi-Fi, which stands for "wireless fidelity." Wi-Fi provides high-speed data connections to the Internet or computer networks. It has become the latest hot technology, partly because it's inexpensive and easy to use. One of the most common habitats of Wi-Fi is within an enterprise where employees cannot always work from their desks. Such businesses are likely to deploy wireless local area networks (LANs) either as separate data networks or as complements to a wired LAN. Several studies have reported improved worker productivity when employees are able to work from anywhere. Another place you're seeing Wi-Fi is in a growing number of II hot spots." These are public places like airports, hotel lobbies, convention centers, and coffee shops. With Wi-Fi you can surf the Internet, answer E-mail, and, with the use of a virtual private network (VPN), access your company's intranet. Gartner, a computer technology research company, has forecast that there will be a hundred thousand of these hot spots across the U.S. within five years. . .. ....... . ,.,.-.,....-. . :i 'Mi;' ;H :: :M! :;:! CAPs,ð @. I.V r;-; 1-:: A third venue for Wi-Fi use is in the home, where it can be set up for about two hundred dollars and will provide Internet access while subscribers watch TV or sit on their decks. Many hot spots are being set up as for-profit businesses that charge hourly, daily, or monthly fees. But there are an increasing number that are free. In Manhattan, free Wi-Fi access has been available for a year in Bryant Park behind the main branch of the New York Public Library on Forty-second Street. And, starting this spring, a project of the Alliance for Downtown New York will offer similar service in at least seven parks and plazas in Lower Manhattan. All you need in order to connect to one of these networks is a PC ca rd for a laptop that costs about fifty dollars, although many laptops and other devices, like the new Palm Tungsten C, have Wi-Fi built in. The Tungsten C is among Palm's most powerful handhelds with a 400 M Hz I ntel processor, a whoppi ng sixty- four megabytes of memory, a high- resolution display screen that supports more than sixty-five thousand colors, a web browser a voice jack for recording, an integrated keyboard, and a VPN client. Bryant Park, where the typical user spends an hour or more, expects more than a hundred daily users this summer, according to Jerome Barth, the park's director of operations. Why is the park's Wi-Fi network free? IIWe thought about it, and we decided we wanted the network to fit within the feel of everything else in (!:,.!:F::. I 'r ..-.>;, _ ,, (i) y. 1U f : a:}$ : ; u t@l: {tt Im Jges GrQQpS 7 ( h) Mr r r , . Mr. ... 'fI SYMBOl. ", $/-l @ ,".;. . ::;.::::'-'.:. ':: : : :r' :::. : . ::: ::::,:-:' : : : ::; ' : ' :.:k<.;:: . . : ::: : ; : : ::;(:":: .: . -5,',.' the park," says Barth. IIWe want people to come to the park, and once they are here we want them to stay. If the Wi-Fi connections weren't free, we would restrict our objectives. " America's love of E-mail is one of the main reasons for Wi-Fi's popularity. A recent report by Ken Dulaney, Gartner's vice president of mobile computing, estimated that wireless E-mail can boost a worker's productivity by ten per cent. For example, work assignments are typically issued by E-mail, and the task can be delayed if the assignment is not received immediately. Desmond Fuller, IT director for iBiquity Digital in Columbia, Maryland, knows the value of wireless E-mail. If there's a problem with iBiquity's net- works, he often gets the call to fix it. Fuller uses a new Palm Tungsten C, which in addition to built-in Wi-Fi has a VPN client for corporate access. Fuller can monitor the network anywhere he has Wi-Fi access. Earlier this year, Fuller and his wife were sitting in a coffee shop when he was suddenly alerted to a network problem. 111 was able to get on the Web and fix it right from there," says Fuller with satisfaction, thankful that he did not have to drive back to the office to complete the task instead. : ::::: -;::